Washington Post Finally
Reports On Bizarro’s Dutch Fiasco;
No Mention of Murder Rates – More Fact-Free Journalism
(Ed. note: This is really appalling, even for
the Post. Were there ever any facts about the success of Dutch policies in this article,
or did all the facts get edited out? Favorable references to treatment programs are
allowed, but there is nothing to indicate that the separation of marijuana and hard drugs
is the basis of Dutch policies. Nor are there any references to the Drug Bizarro’s
claims on Dutch murder rates.
See Dutch
Ambassador And NORML Respond To Washington Times
Coverage Of Drug Bizarro’s Anti-Dutch Propaganda Again, remember
that it was the Drug Czar who brought up the murder rates, not the Dutch. The impression
created by this article is that the Dutch are barely coping with the problems created by
their policies.
The Post and the New York Times are the newspapers read by the nation’s leaders.
It is hard to believe that this degree of deception by withholding facts is just the
result of sloth. What if they did a story like the one in Canada’s The Globe and
Mail?)
See
Very
Accurate Description of Dutch Cannabis Policies
On Front Page Of Canada’s National Newspaper! Important!
and
The
New York Times Covers Up for the Drug Bizarro And Gives No Hint Of Success of Dutch
Policy
Drug Chief Mitigates Slap at Dutch
After Tour, McCaffrey Softens His Criticism of Drug Policies
From the Washington Post
www.washingtonpost.com
By Michael Grunwald
Washington Post Staff Writer
July 21, 1998;
Page A02
Less than two weeks ago, White House drug policy chief Barry R. McCaffrey sparked an
international stir by attacking Dutch drug-fighting policies as "an unmitigated
disaster." Yesterday, he offered a new description of their efforts: "very
impressive."
McCaffrey is still no fan of the permissive Dutch attitude toward
marijuana, and he was appalled by a "heroin provision" experiment for
addicts he saw during a one-day dash through the Netherlands last
week. But he said he was pleasantly surprised by aggressive Dutch efforts to rein in drug
smuggling, "drug tourism" and drug-related violence.
He even said that the United States could learn a great deal from the expansive Dutch
approach to funding drug treatment, especially methadone programs
for heroin users.
"I am envious of their ability to deliver drug treatment and health care to heroin
addicts," said McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"Our program is inadequate in coverage."
It was quite a change of tune for McCaffrey, who made front-page news in the
Netherlands with his "unmitigated disaster" comment during a July 9 appearance
on a CNN talk show. McCaffrey said on the program that Dutch
acceptance of marijuana as a harmless "soft drug" has fueled dramatic increases
in crime and warned that official toleration of nearly 1,200 "cannabis clubs" in
the Netherlands was setting a terrible example for Europe.
(Ed. note: This is more than a little patronizing. Are the other
countries in Europe impressionable children to whom the Dutch are "sending the wrong
message?" In fact, other Europeans are moving in the Dutch direction, not toward
American reefer madness.)
See Belgium
and Italy Move To Decriminalize Cannabis, Moving Further Toward Dutch Policy
The Dutch ambassador to the United States, Joris Vos, responded that he was
"confounded and dismayed" by McCaffrey’s remarks.
McCaffrey, a four-star general who served with distinction in the Vietnam War and the
Persian Gulf War, has courted controversy since President Clinton named him to lead
America’s war on drugs in 1996. He was a bitter critic of needle exchange programs,
then muted his criticism somewhat after Clinton endorsed them as a useful tool against
AIDS. He praised Mexico’s top anti-drug official, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, as
"an honest man," then professed shock when Gutierrez was arrested in a
corruption sting after just 10 weeks in office.
Yesterday, in a news conference about his week-long swing through six European
countries, McCaffrey acknowledged that he had overstepped with
his "unmitigated disaster" criticism of the Dutch. "In a more
balanced vein, I’d suggest that there are areas of agreement and areas of
disagreement," he said. "Friends can disagree with friends."
Dutch officials yesterday said they welcomed his more
conciliatory tone. "I think he made a good visit and learned a lot," said
embassy spokeswoman Madelien DePlanque. "He doesn’t agree with everything we do,
but he’s entitled to an opinion." (Ed. note: The
Dutch are famous for their tolerance of strange behavior.)
McCaffrey visited a methadone program in Amsterdam and said he came away impressed by the
ease with which Dutch heroin addicts can get treatment. In America, he said, methadone
clinics are few and far between, and addicts who do find them often face a maze of
bureaucratic obstacles; only 115,000 of the estimated 800,000 U.S.
heroin addicts currently get methadone.
(Ed. note: If there are 800,000 heroin addicts in the US, and I have
seen other numbers, this would be roughly 3 heroin addicts per 1,000 people. This does
not count cocaine and speed addicts. In the Netherlands, there are a total of 25,000
hard drug addicts – mostly on heroin. This is 1.5 per thousand people. In other
words, there are twice as many heroin addicts per capita in the US as there are in the
Netherlands. Never mind the other hard drugs. More on this soon.) See
Comparison of drug
addiction levels in various European countries.
McCaffrey also said he now believes that the Dutch are doing an "excellent
job" cracking down on serious drug crimes and getting tough
with "drug-dazed" foreign tourists who visit the country for its
marijuana-selling "coffee shops."
(Ed. note: This is utter non-sense. The Dutch police
don’t "get tough" with non-violent people. This is a US and Iraqi
practice.)
See Vraag
Een Politieagent. Go Ahead, Ask A Cop For Dope. The Dutch Don't Mind
New Scientist Special Report
But McCaffrey is not quite ready for America to go Dutch when it comes to drug abuse. He
criticized the toleration of cannabis clubs as "legal hypocrisy."
He distributed statistics indicating dramatic across-the-board
increases in crime and drug-related deaths in the Netherlands since 1978.
(Ed. note: Would it be asking too much of the Post to tell us what
these numbers are and what is their relation to marijuana use? Are the Dutch dying of
marijuana overdoses? Is there violence in the coffee shops? How do these numbers compare
with the US? We are simply supposed to take it on faith that this immeasurable and
reported catastrophe is the result of the failure to arrest Dutch marijuana users. Oh yes,
and what about the murder rate?)
He said he was disturbed by his visit with Rotterdam scientists who are dispensing heroin
to 750 addicts. And he warned that "this beautiful, clean, quiet little country"
has become a production and distribution hub for much of the European drug trade.
"They just haven’t connected their problems to their attitudes towards drug
abuse," McCaffrey said. "They seem to think marijuana is
benign. It’s not benign."
(Ed. note: The Dutch do not say that marijuana is
"benign," -- or "harmless"- but rather that it poses
"acceptable risks," and they have a very good idea of the magnitude of these
risks. They know how many – or how few -- people are in treatment for marijuana
dependency.
The Drug Czar likes to say that there are 100,000 people in treatment for marijuana
addiction in the US. There is no reason to believe that this is true, but it is his
number. There are 3,600 people in treatment for marijuana dependence in Holland. See
"Tremendous
Increase In The Number Of Dutch Cannabis Users Asking For Help"
Swedish Prohibitionists Claim
This means that there are more people in treatment per capita for marijuana dependence
in the US than in Holland. See
Legalize
Marijuana and Reduce Use?
New Survey Puts Estimate of Dutch Marijuana Use Even More Below DEAland
They also know that there is almost no violence associated with marijuana use. In
short, the Dutch have learned a great deal from their 20-year experiment with tolerating
marijuana. It is sheer stupidity and hypocrisy not to learn from it. Or it is just reading
the Washington Post. What a disgraceful excuse for a newspaper.)
McCaffrey refused to visit a cannabis club, explaining that he already knows what
people look like when they smoke pot. But he’s done calling Dutch policy an
"unmitigated disaster."
"You can say it’s a mitigated disaster," he said.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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